Original oil painting on canvas The Great Flood. Size 90x60cm. Delivery on a roll. Please note that delivery may be delayed at this time.
The Great Flood was first mentioned in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. The description of the flood here is older than in the Bible and has more detail. In one part of the epic, the protagonist, in search of immortality, meets King Utanapishtim, an eyewitness to the flood and the only survivor, the prototype of Noah. Utanapishtim is also mentioned in the Sumerian Book of Kings. This book could be considered an ordinary historical document, if it were not for the terms of the reign of kings, equal to several balls, divine years, which lasted 3600 years. Utanapishtim was secretly warned of the flood and a sealed, square-shaped ark was built. Here is the part of the epic where he describes the flood:
The appointed time has come:
In the morning it rained, and at night
I saw with my own eyes the rain of bread.
I looked at the face of the weather –
It was scary to look at the weather.
I entered the ship, opened its doors –
To supply the ship to the shipbuilder Puzur-Amurri
I gave the palace and its riches.
As soon as the radiance of the morning dawned,
A black cloud rose from the bottom of the sky.
Addu rumbles in the middle,
Shullat and Hanish go ahead of her,
They go, messengers, mountain and plain.
Eragal pulls out the pillars of the dam,
Ninurta walks, the chute breaks,
Light the Anunnaki beacons
With their radiance they disturb the earth.
Addu freezes the sky
What was light turned into darkness,
The whole earth split like a bowl.
On the first day, the south wind rages,
It flew fast, flooding the mountains,
Like a war overtaking the earth.
Can’t see each other
And no people can be seen from heaven.
The deluge gods were afraid
Rise, secluded to the sky Anu
Huddled like dogs, stretched out.
Ishtar cries as if in childbirth,
Lady of the gods, whose voice is beautiful:
“Let this day turn into clay,
Once in the council of the gods I decided evil,
How in the council of the gods I decided evil,
War is declared with the death of my people?
Is it really for this that I myself give birth to people,
So that, like fish, people, they fill the sea!
The Anunnaki gods weep with her,
The gods resigned, weeping,
Clumped close together, their lips dry.
The wind blows for six days, seven nights,
The storm covers the land with a flood.
When the seventh day comes
A flood storm stopped the war,
Those who fought like an army.
The sea calmed down, the hurricane calmed down – the flood stopped.
I opened the vent – the light fell on my face,
I looked at the sea – there was silence,
And all mankind became clay!
